This topic contains 7 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
Imagine_David 1 month, 3 weeks ago.
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David and Sally invited me from Facebook to post on this site concerning my diabetes. First, I reside in San Francisco in California and I am not Australian. I am a caucasian male, 56, and upon diagnosis was not overweight nor did I have evident health issues aside from bad teeth which start my story.
For the first time in over twenty years I had a decent job with a good medical plan. I took advantage of it and learned too my dismay that I had a blood glucose over 300. There was no evident reason. No family history. No alcohol abuse, no more bad food than average, tending towards Italian and other Mediterranean diets and an abhorrence of sugar. Then after ultrasound and a CT scan it was learned I had a tiny tumor in my pancreatic tail. However, this was not causative of my diabetes. If it left, diabetes stayed. I learned I had a kidney stone that was over twenty years old and not causing pain, and I learned I had some underlying endocrine disorder.
I was placed on Metformin. This worked so so to bring sugars down. My insurance plan changed and I changed hospitals. More CT scans, more blood work, a new Endocrine specialist and now I am on insulin, taking a shot with each meal and at night. My sugars are under control. I still have my tumor. I still wrestle with diabetes.
I am unemployed as a result of a corporate merger and my insurance is changing soon as I cannot afford to keep it.
The new medical plan in the US may benefit me in the long run, but short run it is cheaper to pay my provider than pay the insurance company and pay the provider as well.
I am on a 75 carb diet and unhappily I am not gaining weight. I vary between 140-145 and the hope is to get me to 150-155.
I decided to crowd source solutions to my situation on Face Book. Slowly I am moving to a radically different way of eating with an emphasis on only organic food, raw foods, lightly cooked foods, and getting Soy out of my life. My struggle is helped by my loving wife, an unemployment check (which ends in April) and my resilient attitude. My slogan is used by the migrant farm workers of California-!Si Si Puede. “We can do it.”
Wow Bruce! Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!
From a dietitian’s perspective, 75 carbs is not much. Even the American Diabetes Assoc suggests that a ‘low-carb’ diet is 130g/day – twice what you’re having. If you’re worried about your weight, are you actually eating enough of all the food groups for your age. I appreciate that you’re from USA, but our Australian Dietiary Guidelines for Adults to give you an idea about how much of each of the food groups you should eat to obtain the nutrients needed for a healthy lifestyle. Page 2 looks at the food groups and how much of each you need. You’ll notice it’s more than 75g carb, but achievable on 130g.
Link here: https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/the_guidelines/n55g_adult_brochure.pdf
Do you know why your health professionals put you on SUCH a low carb diet. Please don’t change anything until you understand why and discuss this with them.
That’s a brilliant attitude “We can do it”! You absolutely can.
Best wishes, Sally
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for sharing your story. Its great to have you here. I think if you take a look around the forums and other posts here at Diabetes Counselling Online you will see many people like yourself who struggle with diabetes each day. This is why we are here – to help share the load, and aim to improve the situation with advice and support.
The health situation in America seems very different to Australia. Our health system has its faults, but from the little I understand of your system Australians are by far able to get access for health matters easier than people like yourself. Being unemployed in itself is a struggle, and trying to manage your diabetes on top of this must add to a daily load of stress.
I hope you can find some answers here to assist you in your self care plan. And with luck the Amerian health system will change to your benefit as ‘ObamaCare’ is instigated.
Use this forum as you have done the Facebook page – as questions and share knowledge / experience. We all have something to learn, we all have something to teach.
Safe travels my friend,
David-
This reply was modified 2 months ago by Imagine_David.
Hi Bruce, How did your Presidents State of the Nation speech today effect people with diabetes?
Good question. David, Americans consume 31 five-pound bags of sugar each year on a per capita basis, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). One hundred and fifty-six pounds of added sugar per American is only going to increase.
The health care plan is really a subsidy for the health care/insurance nexus that taxes everyone and this ill considered idea is one more moving part of an economic crisis in the USA according to an economics blog by Charles Hughes Smith called Of Two Minds. http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan14/bogus-stats1-14.html
For me, my insurance is gone next month. To buy new insurance is prohibitive even with the subsidy. I am unable to secure employment at my old wage level. I am having incredible difficulty securing employment at a significantly lower wage level since I am older and over qualified! It is feasible that my unemployment insurance ends in April since the Federal government is unable to agree to extend it. So I am somewhat jaundiced, but I cannot doubt that other diabetics are likewise situated. Especially in high cost urban environments.
Hi Bruce, seems like you are in a tough place at present. I wish you well.
Well, as you know from counseling, every day is different and the sun is new each day. The struggle is an excellent opportunity in truth to grow and respond to the challenges of life. I do think myself quite fortunate to have some amount of equanimity and to have resilience. My primary concerns are health and income, insurance is sort of secondary, and income will arrive as needed. I am giving really a great deal of thought to turning the tables and writing about my personal struggle offline for money in various publications. My reading habits help of course-philosophy and Eastern thought-and my interest in using diabetes to grow as a person.
“Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer“Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer
Great quote Bruce, thank you for sharing.
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